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Virtual walks

A new genre of experiences has emerged on YouTube. A bunch of channels offer quiet walks in high resolution. The creators hold a stabilized high def camera with binaural audio and walk around Tokyo at night, or Times Square in snow, or London in the rain, or the back alleys of New Delhi, all without narration. I can hear the ambient sounds and see all the ordinary things usually edited out of sizzle reels.  It really feels like I am there. These virtual walks allow me to travel without traveling. Some folks just watch for the soothing calm it gives them. I enjoy the tiny distinctive details of places I am “returning” to and a way to check out places I’d like to go. There are dozens if not hundreds of channels, often specializing in regions. A few I watch: Nomadic Ambience (NYC, Japan, Iceland), Virtual Japan (Japan),  Watched Walker (London, Paris, Spain), Keezi Walks (India, China, Vietnam, South America). Google “quiet virtual walk” for your destination. — KK

Videos of big construction errors

Structural Failures on Twitter is a collection of fascinating videos of collapses of buildings and towers, showing the catastrophic consequences that can result from engineering and construction mistakes. (There’s no gore, but some of the videos show workers in peril.) — MF

Awaken your neglected sense

I took The Five Senses Quiz created by Gretchen Rubin, author of “Life in Five in Senses”  and it identified my most neglected sense as Hearing. I was also given interesting suggestions on how to enhance my “neglected” sense. For starters, I’ve been ditching my AirPods when I walk my dog. I’m not accustomed to quizzes that tell me my shortcomings rather than strengths, but I appreciate becoming aware of my areas of neglect, because it motivates me towards improvement. — CD 

Instant relief for itchy eyes

My eyes have been itching like crazy for the last few months. I was rubbing them so hard and so often that they started to feel sore. I finally decided to try over-the-counter allergy eye drops. I bought Alaway from Bausch + Lomb, based on the many positive reviews. It contains an antihistamine, and one drop provides almost instant relief for hours. — MF

Crowdsourced map to explore cities

Hoodmaps is a crowdsourced map that divides cities up into areas and labels. It’s not really moderated and some might find the neighborhood generalizations offensive, but I found it accurate for the cities I’ve lived in and visited — and it made me laugh. It’s created by the person who also created Nomadlist, which is probably a more helpful resource for learning about a city. — CD 

Design inspiration

Wowee Zowee! The Internet Archive Design is an amazing library of inspiring graphic design documents. It bills itself as “a digital archive of graphic design related items” which includes old font catalogs, logo handbooks, cool brochures, design yearbooks, visual display, handbooks for design machines, and graphic style guides. I’ve found amazing treasures here, which I use to hatch my daily art. All are free to peruse, but you need to register a free account in order to “check out” some in-print publications from this online library. — KK

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

07/30/23